Spider-Man: Life Story By Chip Zdarsky & Mark Bagley

[Scott Taylor]

Civil War in the 2000s in this version of the universe. Geriatric Steve and Tony are just political rivals, I'm guessing. They're going to be like 70 years old!

[Tuck]

Civil War in the 2000s in this version of the universe. Geriatric Steve and Tony are just political rivals, I'm guessing. They're going to be like 70 years old!

TWIST: Cap gets frozen twice in this continuity!

[Scott Taylor]

It might be a twist that it all takes place in a rest home with them throwing colostomy bags at each other.

[Miles To Go]

It might be a twist that it all takes place in a rest home with them throwing colostomy bags at each other.

[Yvonmukluk]

Civil War in the 2000s in this version of the universe. Geriatric Steve and Tony are just political rivals, I'm guessing. They're going to be like 70 years old!

Well, Steve does have the Super-Soldier serum going for him at least. And if Tony gets Extremis...

Or you know, starts operating the suit remotely.

Maybe we still get Bucky Cap, though, since he spent most of the intervening time in a tube.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, both Steve and Bucky would still be young. Tony though, would be elderly. Maybe Iron Man is Rhodey by then? Or maybe Iron Man is straight up replaced by another hero. The cover only shows Cap's iconography.

[boots]

It might be a twist that it all takes place in a rest home with them throwing colostomy bags at each other.

will steve's bag return to him?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Okay, so on April 8, Zdarsky did this podcast here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uls741tvOag):

Some summary of interesting points for both Life Story and his run on Spectacular:
-- He said that the "My Dinner with Jonah" thing was something that came naturally and was something that Nick Lowe and others had to sign off on. He also discussed how Jonah and Peter were in a different place than in CIVIL WAR where Peter learned his identity first.
-- He said that the reason Spectacular Spider-Man had a mega-arc in an Alternate Universe was to avoid stepping on Dan's toes for ASM.
-- Spectacular Spider-Man was a project that the editors pitched to him to take and he was reluctant about doing it.

So about Life Story:
-- Zdarsky said that his initial pitch was a maxi-series about the entire Marvel Universe. But Tom Brevoort told him it was too ambitious and Brevoort (*) suggested just to focus on Spider-Man. Zdarsky said that the wider arc with Captain America and other heroes stuff is based on ideas he had planned.
-- Zdarsky said that Spider-Man Life Story #3 is the most nostalgic and his personal favorite to work on since it was the decade he read Spider-Man and he tried to cram and refer to as many events and happenings in that decade. He mentions removing Hobgoblin and dithering on wheter to include him or not.
-- Issue #4 set in the 90s will touch on the clones. Funnily enough, Brevoort on hearing Zdarsky's plans told him, no, "I lived through the Clone Saga, I don't want to relive it" but Zdarsky convinced him otherwise with his summary which Brevoort.

* Something Zdarsky might not know. But in 2008, Roger Stern in a podcast with Spider-Man Crawlspace mentioned that Tom Brevoort once suggested to him to do a comic that followed Spider-Man if he aged real-time. Stern thought about it but didn't think it was interesting or see where it was going. So maybe Brevoort had this idea in the back of his mind for some time and Zdarsky was the first guy who saw the full potential.

[Miles To Go]

This Marvel article promoting Life Story#3 touches on the most signficant developments of the 80s for Spider-Man, they include

-Kraven's Last Hunt
-The Wedding
-The Symbiote
-The Hobgoblin
-Here Lies Tombstone

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...from-the-1980s

Okay, so on April 8, Zdarsky did this podcast here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uls741tvOag):

Chip and I definitely disagree on our philosophies regarding Spider-Man. Having read things like the daily strip and RYV, it's very easy to stretch Peter's happiness out for ten years or more without him screwing things up

[HypnoHustler]

From the cover, solicit, and the fact he dies in the original story, my guess is Cap will die in #5.

[HypnoHustler]

Here's the cover:Attachment 81419

Peter pushing up the Star is like the Master Planner homage inside it.

And the overall tone can't help but bring to mind this song



Now I'm calling all citizens from all over the world
This is captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I'm falling
- Ray Davies, The Kinks

Cap's bottom emblem with the 2 red bars could also be a reference to the twin towers.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Cap's bottom emblem with the 2 red bars could also be a reference to the twin towers.

Ooh...good catch.

[bat39]

Two issues in, now that I've kinda got a hang of how Life Story rolls, here are my predictions for the 80's...


Mild SPOILERS for the first two issues





My guess is that its set around 1984. Peter and MJ are engaged, but shortly before the wedding, Spider-Man is whisked away to fight the Secret Wars with the Beyonder. A lot of superheroes are involved in the fight - including Captain America and Iron Man, who are at each others' throats but grudgingly agree to work together. Peter gets the symbiote pretty much as in canon.

Right after the battle is won and the heroes get back to earth, Iron Man tries to arrest Captain America for his action during 'Nam. Spider-Man suddenly acts using the powers of the symbiote suit and helps Cap escape. His resultant fight with the Avengers reveals the suit's capabilities.

Peter is on a high after taking on the Avengers. We see him get back to normal life and his usual webslinging. But, taking a cue from the 90's cartoon and Spider-Man 3, Peter becomes increasingly more cocky and aggressive and this drives a wedge between him and MJ. Not to mention, publicaly, Spider-Man is now wanted by the authorities because of his stunt involving Cap and his increasingly brutal vigilantism - with Kraven being hired by the US Government to track down Spider-Man by any means necessary.

Once Peter hits rock-bottom, with MJ dumping him and now being public enemy no. 1, Peter realizes the impact the symbiote is having on him. The tipping point is when he fights Kraven and nearly kills him. Peter gets rid of the symbiote at the church. But the symbiote then bonds with Kraven who beats the crap out of Peter and buries him alive.

Kraven, driven mad by the power of the symbiote, assumes the identity of Spider-Man and virtually goes on a killing spree. MJ is shocked and devastated, initially believing its Peter, until Kraven kidnaps her. Peter, digs his way out of the grave and learns what's happened. He initially thinks of putting on his old Spidey suit and taking on Kraven, but then decides that this is one battle he can't fight as Spider-Man. We then see Peter approach Tony Stark and develop a sonic weapon that Iron Man uses to defeat Kraven and imprison the symbiote once and for all.

In the aftermath, Peter and MJ are reunited. Peter decides that even though Kraven's identity theft was exposed, the Spider-Man name is now tainted and he's had enough of the mantle - reasoning that there are other ways to serve society and live a live of responsibility - especially now that Peter Parker has become famous as the scientist who helped Iron Man beat Kraven. He takes a job at Stark Industries and he and MJ get married.

In the coda, set a year later, MJ tells Peter that she's pregnant. In the meantime, the symbiote escapes and finds a new host - Eddie Brock...

[Miles To Go]

MJ is shocked and devastated, initially believing its Peter

Are you forgetting MJ never bought that Kraven was Peter for a minute in KLH? You're doing her character a great disservice assuming she's that naive.

[Digifiend]

I didn't know Kraven was a Venom host... does that mean that after the events of the current ASM arc, Carnage will hunt him down?